From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Chairman of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Agada IV, the Ibenananowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom and a peace advocacy group in the Niger Delta, the Movement for Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta (MSDND) have called on the Federal Government to focus on the re-construction of the vandalized Presidential Amnesty Vocational Training Centre located in Boro – Town, Kaiama in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The Presidential Amnesty Training Centre located in Kaima town in Bayelsa was vandalized and looted in February, 2019.
According to Dakolo and the MSDND, the re-construction of the training center will ensure that amnesty beneficiaries are trained and gainfully employed to eradicate agitation in the region.
While noting that the call for the Federal Government to rebuild the Amnesty Training Centre as welcome and timely, Dakolo asked the FG to ensure that those behind the looting of the centre are brought to book.
He assured the Federal Government that the people of the state will ensure that the reconstructed centre will be protected in liaison with the traditional institution and the youths.
Dakolo declared that though the Federal Government is making funds available through the Amnesty office for the rebuilding of the training centre, it should also reveal the contractors involved in the fraud and looting of the centre.
National Coordinator of the MSDND, Chief Ayibatekena Olodin, while addressing newsmen at the abandoned site of the Amnesty Training centre in Kaima town commended the numerous gains of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) under the leadership of its Interim Administrator, Col. Miland Dixon Dikio (rtd.) but implore the Federal Government to strengthen its partnership with Dikio to achieve more goals of Amnesty Programme.
Olodin noted that the abandoned Presidential Amnesty Vocational Training Centre has left many beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme untrained in various vocational skills needed to empower them in the society.
MSDND recalled that the vandalization and looting of the 60 Billion Amnesty Training and Vocational Centre located at Boro–Town, Kaiama in Bayelsa State occurred in a shady manner; hence they have filed a petition before the State Commissioner of Police and the EFCC for a detailed probe to bring those responsible to book.
“Despite its protest against the five (5) days uninterrupted looting incident that rocked the vocational centre in February 2019, the Federal Government is yet to launch a thorough investigation into the incident, which has deliberately made a mockery of the anti-corruption stance of President Muhammadu Buhari” he said.
MSND in its petition to the State Police Command and the EFCC, the group called for a probe into the fake supply contracts, public funds stealing, fraud and corruption that occurred at the Amnesty office under the past administration.
Olodin noted that the abandoned Presidential Amnesty Vocational Training Centre has left many beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme untrained in various Vocational skills needed to empower them in the society.
He called on President Buhari to ensure the reconstruction of the centre with adequate security facilities.